For Lily
by InkQuillz
Summary: -One Shot- There was something for him at number four Private Drive. He just needed to find out what it was. First Potter fic in a LONG TIME


The shiny brass number four glared at him in the early morning light. His fifth visit that week alone and he still had not racked up the nerve to knock. He stepped back when the door of number four opened. A woman came out, two children behind her. He knew the boy instantly, his face was drawn now, no longer full and rounded by baby-fat, no longer full of the healthy rose glow that he had always possessed before but still he was the same boy. Grown now, it had been two years since he'd seen him last. The other child, he knew who he belonged to, it was obvious. He was pampered and looked as though he had eaten them out of house and home already.

She was harassed looking, hair out of place as she dragged the boys. Harry fell to the floor and cried out but she didn't stop, releasing his hand to lock the door and then grabbing his arm and dragging both boys down the road and out of sight. He sighed heavily and followed at a distance. Petunia was too occupied to notice him, crooning over her son as he sang a nursery rhyme to her, all the while Harry struggled to keep up, tears streaming down his cheeks; for which he got a harsh telling off for when his aunt noticed. A small part of him wanted to step in, perhaps Dumbledore was wrong. Was it possible?

Unable to bear it a moment longer, he found a quiet alley and apparated away. When he returned two days later, he came later in the day and watched her return to the house; her son in a fancy buggy and eating a cake of some sort whilst Harry dragged along behind, he looked as though he had yet to eat a thing since last he had seen him. Petunia didn't have a hand on him, but the dark haired boy followed dutifully, stopping only to try picking up a stick but as soon as his aunt turned back and saw, he received a sharp telling off and was ordered to drop his find. He hung his head for the rest of the walk down the drive, his small legs leaving him a few feet from his family. It would have been so easy for a dark wizard to come up behind him and snatch him away for good. Perhaps that was what Petunia hoped for.

He told himself it was concern for dark wizards alone that brought him forward that day. As she struggled to push the pram through the now open number four as Harry attempted to unbutton the coat which was several sizes too big for him. It was Harry who noticed him first and he didn't spare much attention for him, his eyes only for the woman before him.

"I need a word."

She let out a scream of shock and turned around, her eyes widened when she realised who her intruder was and her face paled considerably. She turned from Harry to him, horrified before she grabbed Harry's hand and thrust him forward, into the hallway.

"Get in there, now!" Harry did as he was told but got as far as the kitchen doorway and turned back to the stranger; he looked up at them curiously. "Get in your room!" Petunia screeched and Harry opened up a cupboard beside the kitchen and stepped inside. With the child now gone and only Petunia's son to occupy her attentions, he frowned into their spotless house. He could see portrait after candid snap of the fat, blonde child but none of Harry and none of Lily and from what he could gather, the door really had been a cupboard that Lily's son had entered. His heart thudded harshly at that.

"I need a word." He repeated.

"Go away. I have nothing to say to you." She finally got the buggy out of the way of the door and made to shut it but he held out his hand to prevent it closing.

"I will call the police!"

"And tell them what?"

"Get off my property this instant!"

"Petunia..."

"I mean it, you freak. I won't have it, Lily might have thought you clever but you're dangerous, I won't have you near my Duddikins!" She was shrill now and the blonde boy started crying loudly. "Hush now, sweetie." She murmured before taking up her attempts to close the door again.

"Believe me... I have no interest in your... child." He sneered back and was mildly amused at her indignation.

"Then what do you what?" She hissed at him, looking around to make sure her neighbours weren't watching before glaring up at the man in her doorway.

"It's about Lily."

"Lily?" She looked wildly around, ignoring her son's question of 'Who's Lily, Mamma?'

"You and Lily weren't even talking, she told me. Whatever you have to say, I don't wish to hear it, now go away."

"Petunia!" He ground out.

"Please, Severus. Leave me alone." She tried again to close the door but he stepped inside.

"It won't take long."

After a while she closed the door, unplugged her son from his buggy seat and carried him to the top of the stairs. "Go and play, darling." And she closed a gate at the top of the stairs, designed to stop him falling down.

She walked into the living room without looking and snapped at him. "Say whatever it is and then leave. My husband will be home shortly."

Severus rolled his eyes and moved to stand by the window. Now he was here he wasn't sure what to say. The December cold had frosted her window slightly and he spent a few moments taking in the pattern of the ice. "The boy." He finally asked. "Looks unhealthy."

"You're questioning my ability to care for him?"

"Quite frankly, yes. Why did you take him?"

"I had no choice. The man who runs the school..."

"Dumbledore," He filled in with a sigh, he hadn't known that Dumbledore had forced her; he had made it sound as though Petunia was a willing party in this grand scheme of his. Though he should have known, he wasn't exactly on great terms with the wizard, even now.

"Yes. He wrote me a letter, explained what had happened to... To her... That he was my responsibility. Seemed to think the boy would be in danger anywhere else."

He couldn't help but notice she seemed calmer. Though she had taken on a shield of coldness and distance and would not look at him but over his shoulder.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted... I... I don't know."

"She told me. About what happened between you before she married that, whatever his name was? The Potter."

Severus didn't answer, he couldn't. No words would form and his mouth was suddenly dry.

"You wanted to see if her son looked like her. He doesn't, he's nothing like her. Sometimes I think I can see her there, in his eyes, he has her eyes, but it's never really her." She seemed deep in thought before looking up at him properly and hissing coldly. "Because she's dead and I'm landed with her son."

"Send him away then."

"I told you... You think I want him here? You think I want my freak sister's brat? He's going to be like her, he's already doing weird stuff."

He inhaled sharply, he could not hear a word against Lily but on her behalf he felt a strange swell of pride, Harry could already do magic. Maybe he was more like his mother than his arrogant prat of a father.

When he looked at Petunia she was gazing out the window but she didn't appear to be seeing it, she was remembering something else. Thinking about Lily, as he did frequently. "Why did she have to get herself killed?" She mumbled and Snape looked away, he asked that same question every day, she had a chance to walk away, she could have been with them now. She could have been with him; he'd have given her other children. She wouldn't have needed Harry... He'd have made sure she had as many sons and daughters as she wanted, he'd have given her the world if only she had walked away and let the boy and James die.

Instead, here he was, spending his days watching her son wither away. She had chosen the little boy that was currently hiding inside a cupboard. Unwanted and unloved now that the woman who had brought him into the world had been taken away. But if Lily had chosen Harry then so would Snape.

"If Lily hadn't been a witch, if she'd died some other way... How would you treat her son?" He challenged and moved toward the door. He stared at the door, it open a fraction and he could see a bright green eye twinkling from between the gap. Petunia hadn't answered because they both knew the answer, if Lily had been 'normal' in her sister's eyes, then Lily's son would be precious to Petunia. She'd have loved him the way she loved her own son because Snape knew what no one else did... Petunia didn't hate Lily because she was a witch; she hated her because she herself wasn't one.

He forced himself to smile at Harry as the pale little face came more into few and Harry smiled back, Lily's eyes grinning happily up at him.


End file.
